Pages

Monday, January 7, 2019

Assyrians and Kushites Take to the Field

Assyrian King leads his army into battle

Finally! After watching a seemingly, non-ending stream of Assyrian units march off the painting desk, the Assyrian Army took to the field of battle. Pitted against the Assyrian Army was the flower of the Kushite Egyptian kingdom fielded in a similar endless parade of units off my opponent's painting desk.With a newly marked grid and Army Lists in hand, To the Strongest! (TtS!) was chosen as the rules of engagement for this first contest. Since TtS!suggests a battle of 130 points as a good evening-sized battle, we drafted two army lists to fit these criteria. The lists produced yielded about a dozen units per side. The Rule of Twelve at work! With labels affixed, the two armies were deployed for battle.

Armies arrayed for battle

With this being only my third game of TtS! and Jakes' first, we kept the battle situation and rules simple while we came to grips with the rules. The battlefield was laid out devoid of terrain. Ammo limitation and resupply were not considered and no Stratagems were in play. Each army was divided into roughly three, equal commands.

Playing cards flew fast as the two armies maneuvered to close on their opponent. Notice that spearmen and warriors were often supported by a unit of bowmen in the same box. Having the Assyrian bowmen in tandem with a unit of heavy spear would add punch to a clash as the bowmen could fire at a target before the spear engaged. A sound tactic, I thought. The Kushites ascribed to the same tactic but a number of skirmishing bow were also included in the Kushite OB. These skirmishers caused a number of harassing hits on the Assyrian army before it could close.

Battlelines close

Coming to grips did not take long and soon casualties were mounting on both sides. With most units only capable of sustaining two hits before elimination, the battle was bloody. The Assyrian King, in his heavy chariot, drove deep into the enemy line. Unfortunately, many of his supporting troops were repulsed by counterattacks.

Melee in the center of the battlefield as Assyrians attack

Having Victory Medals of eight each, the conclusion to the battle was reached quickly. Kushite attacks were fierce. Elements of the Assyrian Army began streaming from the field as first the Assyrian right and then left collapsed and scattered. In less than one hour of play, the battle was over. Victory to the Kushites!

Assyrian Army in deep trouble

With a quick decision in Game 1, the contestants were brought back to their starting lines and a second battle began. Unfortunately for the Assyrian King, the lessons in the first battle proved elusive to grasp.

Kushites on the attack

As in Game 1, the Kushites delivered a series of potent attacks and fended off repeated Assyrian counter punches. Quickly, the Assyrians lost their eight Victory Medals. Could the Assyrian Army regain enough momentum if the Victory Medal count was increased to ten? No, the Assyrian Army quickly lost two more units to the deadly combination of missile fire followed by melee. Another quick end to Assyrian aspirations.

Kushites dominate Game 2

Both games were bloody quick. That is, bloody and quick!

While rules' mistakes were made during the game and I missed several of the Saving Throw modifiers. Nothing likely to tip the balance of the final outcomes except one. The Kushite light chariots deployed on both flanks should have had only one hit vs the two we allowed. That may have brought the sweeping flanking maneuvers to a halt and saved both Assyrian flanks from completed destruction. But then, maybe not. Without doubt, my Assyrians were manhandled by their Kushite foe.

Having most units capable of sustaining only two hits, actions were decisive. Only the Kushite warriors maintained the ability to absorb three hits before scattering. The difference between taking two or three hits can be decisive. To allow more unit resiliency, I may recommend increasing the Army Point total for the next games.

The games were a lot of fun even in defeat and played quickly even though the rules were questioned and consulted frequently. That frequent consultation is expected when learning a new game. TtS! helps in this learning process with a well laid-out rulebook and superb Index. Questions were answered with a quick thumb through the book. Note that both armies were originally built and created under Impetvs Army guidelines. We found creating a TtS! army based upon Impetvs did not always translate into one-for-one matches. We may need to tweak the TtS! lists to conform more precisely to our existing organizations. I look forward to a rematch!

Thanks, Aaron. Yes, limiting ammo would take some sting out of the Kushite archers as would remembering all of the Saving Throw modifiers. The archers would have a reduced chance to score against the Assyrian heavy infantry had I added in the shieldwall modifier.

Finally getting these troops onto the table was a big goal accomplished.

It will be interesting, for sure. I really enjoy the mechanisms and gaming engine provided by Impetvs. To the Strongest! has much to offer too. We plan to fight a few Biblical battles using Impetvs and TtS! and make that assessment.

A very entertaining game indeed. I would be interested in trying the same armies in Impetus and see if the results are at all similar. I still think the rules did not do enough to reflect the difference in Infantry types. (Light versus Heavy in Impetus) That said, it plays fast.

Yes, we should line them up and have another go using Impetvs. More tries with TsS! are in order too, I think. It all may make more sense regarding unit distinctions in a second round of games. Thanks for bringing up your Egyptians!

Hurray for troops on the table and trying out some new rules. It does though seems that y’all missed something by ignoring the ammo rules which are there to limit the effectiveness of missle troops. But I’ve only read the rules and never played so I’m not an expert. Just seems that something was off for 1 side to get steamrolled so throughly twice in a row. Might require more play time on the game table. I’ll need to try these rules out someday. Nice post! 😀

It was far from a steamroller. I just found that the Assyrian side 'culminated' first. I.e. stress built up on both sides, but the game changed rapidly as one side finally suffered catastrophic collapse.

The Egyptian Light Chariots only taking 1 hit is a big deal - a single hit, and poof, they're gone! Plus, in melee, they only hit on an 8+ This means they must skirmish and look for flank attacks/shots, rather than attacking the Assyrian Heavy chariots and cavalry head on, except when the later are already disordered. The ammo limits are important (This may get changed in V2 to simply a penalty to shooting when ammo is "low"). The Assyrians should generally be one save number better than the Egyptians, reflecting their better armor 2 better for spears being shot at due to "Shield Wall" rule. Their Heavy Chariots and the Royal Guard should both be especially tough. Still, if you play 1's, 2's, and 3's for all your save attempts, it won't help much! :-)

Yeah, I believe we gave the light chariots one too many hits. As for the ammo rule, it is important but for a first trial, I wanted to avoid the bookkeeping. The Kushites won't be given those benefits next time!

Beautiful figures and a great game report Jonathan - you will be aware my "group" often use TtS for ancient and medieval games - not the most accurate and "realistic" (whatever that means in terms of playing with toy soldiers! - but they do give a quick and decisive game - yes, you do need to remember light troops need higher scores to hit and generally disappear after only one "casualty" is inflicted!

Thank you, Keith, for your thoughts on TtS! While I have only a very few games under my belt, I agree with your assessment. TtS! seems a game first and battle simulation second. Quick and decisive is good for a quick afternoon or evening game. I look forward to more games to see how my impressions of Tts! mature and how my tactics evolve. We made a few mistakes in this first Biblical outing but these errors can be easily corrected.

Great to see your beautifully painted armies on the table. I'm toying with the idea of TtS! myself but somehow those playing cards trailing the units put me off. Other candidates are Impetvs and Civitates Bellantes but it's not an easy choice......

What a great reward to all that brushwork to see your armies assembled on the table, even if ignominious defeat was your fate! Hopefully you will Make Assyria Great Again. Not sure exactly who the Kushites were but I am sure they are a bad lot and will get their comeuppance in due course!

The cards really do speed up play (it's amazing how much time some guys can waste with dice rituals... the next card you turn won't change no matter what you do, LOL!), but of course chits can be used, or even D10's.

Hi James. The activation cards correspond to each unit so it is important to be able to associate cards to unit. If the cards could be played to the side in an unambiguous manner, I don't see why it could not be done that way. Having the cards close to the owning unit makes play very fast.